Download using the principles of learning to understand everyday behavior

USING THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND
EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR
USING THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING TO
UNDERSTAND EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR
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Learning Objectives:
1.
Review the ways that learning theories can be applied to understanding and modifying
everyday behavior.
2.
Describe the situations under which reinforcement may make people less likely to enjoy
engaging in a behavior.
3.
Explain how principles of reinforcement are used to understand social dilemmas such
as the prisoner’s dilemma, and why people are likely to make competitive choices in
them.
USING THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING TO
UNDERSTAND EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR
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Learning principles have been applied widely in everyday settings
Operant conditioning has been applied to:
– motivate employees
– improve athletic performance
– increase the functioning of the developmentally disabled
– help parents toilet-train their children
USING CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN
ADVERTISING
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The general idea is to create an advertisement with positive features, so that the ad creates
enjoyment in the viewer. Through conditioning, the advertised product should create the
same enjoyment.
An ad’s positive features might include humor, a popular athlete or entertainer, and so on.
USING CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN
ADVERTISING
• Ads that associate fear with a
product or behavior are also
effective.
– Cigarette warning labels
are a related example.
USING CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN
ADVERTISING
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The use of classical conditioning in advertising is most successful when:
– we know little about the product
– the differences between competing products are minor
– we do not think carefully about the choices
OPERANT CONDITIONING IN THE
CLASSROOM
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Watson and Skinner believed that
conditioning principles could be used to
educate children.
Skinner promoted programmed
instruction, self-teaching with the aid of a
special textbook or teaching machine that
presents material in a logical sequence.
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“Give me a dozen healthy infants, wellformed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take
any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might
select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchantchief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of
his ancestors.”
» Watson (1930)
OPERANT CONDITIONING IN THE
CLASSROOM
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There are limitations to the use of reinforcement in instruction.
– Reinforcement should be directly contingent on appropriate behavior.
– Indiscriminate reinforcement to boost self-esteem doesn’t improve performance.
– Reinforcement may teach children that educational activities should be performed for
reward rather than for the intrinsic interest of the task.
REINFORCEMENT IN SOCIAL DILEMMAS
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People act to maximize their outcomes, the presence of reinforcers and the absence of
punishers.
In social dilemmas, the tendency for individuals to maximize their personal outcomes
ultimately reduces outcomes for everyone in the group.
– For example, individuals enjoy the convenience of driving alone to work each day, rather
than taking public transportation. In the end, though, there is more traffic, less fuel,
and less clean air for everyone.
REINFORCEMENT IN SOCIAL DILEMMAS
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The prisoner’s dilemma game allows the
laboratory study of social dilemmas.
In the game, two suspected criminals are
interrogated separately.
The matrix indicates the outcomes for
each prisoner -- the number of years in
prison -- as a result of each combination of
cooperative (don’t confess) and competitive
(confess) decisions.
Outcomes for Malik are in black and
outcomes for Frank are in grey.
USING THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING TO
UNDERSTAND EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR
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Key Takeaways
– Learning theories have been used to change behaviors in many areas of everyday life.
– Some advertising uses classical conditioning to associate a pleasant response with a
product.
– Rewards are frequently and effectively used in education but must be carefully designed
to be contingent on performance and to avoid undermining interest in the activity.
– Social dilemmas, such as the prisoner’s dilemma, can be understood in terms of a desire
to maximize one’s outcomes in a competitive relationship.